Halloween Horrors (Alfendi Layton and Lucy Baker)
by Lucifendi
Summary: When Lucy Baker drags Alfendi Layton to a carnival on Halloween the haunted house becomes the scene of a murder. Can Lucy and Al stop him before he strikes again? Light Lucifnedi.
1. Chapter 1: Haunted House

Lucy Baker reaches behind her and locates Alfendi Layton's hand. Giving it a determined tug she urges, "Come on, Prof." She pauses a moment to turn and face the tall, lean man with messy burgundy hair and honey yellow eyes. She gives him an effervescent grin; one that he returns weakly after hesitating a moment.

It was a brisk Halloween night and a gentle breeze tugged at the golden leaves that were still attached to the branches of trees and swirled the ones that had already fallen around the pair's feet. A full moon shone through scattered clouds and the stars winked down from the sky. "Lucy, why did we have to attend this carnival?" Alfendi asks for the second time that day.

Lucy rolls her amber eyes at the Al's inquiry and repeats, "Because it's fun." She picks up her pace, navigating through people and food carts.

Al gives an irked sigh. That was the same response she had given him this morning when she had barged into the office, late as usual. Alfendi looks at Lucy again; she was wearing a Sherlock Holmes costume. Though it included a plaid skirt, a form-fitting black tank top, a plaid petty-coat along with knee high socks and clunky black shoes. She completed the look with a matching hat that now donned Alfendi's head instead of her own.

When Lucy had entered she was quite displeased with his 'lack of Halloween spirit' and quickly gave him her hat to make up for his missing costume. Al groans once more, earning a chastising glare from Lucy, "Stop being such a downer," Lucy scolds, "Look! Candy floss!"

Lucy drags Al over to a cart selling the sugary treat. She purchases a cone for herself and tries to get one for Alfendi as well, but he says politely, "No thank you, I'd rather not have my teeth fall out."

Lucy bites into the cone, allowing the sugar to melt onto her tongue before saying, "Why don't ya pick summat to do since ya don't like the things I'm picking." Her tone was playful but Alfendi detects the sincere hurt in it as well.

He sighs to himself. He knew Lucy honestly wanted him to have a grand time and he wasn't really helping the already difficult task by moaning and griping. If anything, he wanted _her _to have an enjoyable experience. He quickly fixes his annoyed expression and says, "How about we ride the haunted house roller coaster?"

As he expected, Lucy's face brightens at the idea. "That would be fun, yeah!"

The line was short and Al concludes that the ride must not be terribly scary. This, however, might be a good thing as Lucy did scare easily. Pretty soon they were buckled in the cart that was supposedly meant for two people. The term _personal space_ was obviously not in the vocabulary of whoever designed it fore, there was barley a millimeter of space between the inspector and his assistant.

This realization forces his face to turn slightly crimson but Lucy doesn't appear to notice, and if she does, she obviously doesn't mind. The cart slowly lurches forward plunging the passengers into darkness. Lucy squeals and grabs on to Al's hand. The inspector flushes at the contact.

As various attractions lunge out Lucy screams and then giggles at her own foolishness. Alfendi allows a calm smile onto his face as his assistant buries her face into his chest. "Lucy, all of this stuff is fake. Why are you scared? You deal with real murders every day." Al feels the need to point out, his tone light with amusement.

Lucy smiles and says, "Aye, I'm not scared. It just surprises me, ya know?" Lucy inspects Al's calm features and demands, "Does anything _ever_ bother you?" She thinks back to several cases with gruesome details that had made Lucy want to scream, but Al never showed any shock or fear.

Alfendi shrugs and responds, "Yes, however, I know all of this is fake. Knowledge is power."

Lucy rolls her eyes skeptically, trying to imagine Alfendi Layton ever being scared. Her mind couldn't even begin to conjure an image. "Sure," is all she says.

Just then a horrible, blood-curdling scream pierces the darkness. It was obviously female. Lucy flinches in the seat, giving Alfendi's hand a tight squeeze in surprise. "That was awfully life-like," she says slowly.

Al frowns pondering the sound momentarily. He scans the area and his eyes rest on a tiny slit of light. "I don't think that was part of the ride," He murmurs to Lucy quietly, as not to alert the other passengers. He points to a spot a few yards in front of them.

Lucy follows his finger and watches as a dark figure slips through a tiny crack of light that was obviously a door that had been left ajar. She gasps and tries to force the safety bar up to no avail.

Alfendi quickly locates the emergency release button and the bar shudders before slowly swinging up. Lucy jumps over the side of the slow-moving ride, Al right behind her, as the two dart to the door. The hunt for the murderer was on.


	2. Chapter 2: Message in Blood

The door swings shut with a bang just as Lucy manages to reach it. She tries the handle only to discover that the murderer had barred it from the outside, making following him this way impossible. Al joins Lucy in defeat.

"Clever," Alfendi growls, a dark layer to his calm tone. His burgundy hair drops into eyes and turns the crimson shade of fresh blood.

Lucy doesn't even register the transformation. She leans her back on the door and says, "Wot now?"

Al hangs his head in his hands and groans slightly. When he picks his head up his hair was back to its prior neat burgundy state. "We have to alert the authorities. Also, the body should still be here. I'd say this calls for a spot of investigating, Lucy."

A shiver works it's way through Lucy's body as she recalls the horrible tortured scream the victim had released. She mumbles to herself, "We _are_ the authorities." She pulls her mobile out of her back pocket and begins to wander around looking for service to make the call.

She holds the phone out towards the ceiling and tilts her head up as well. This proves to be a bad idea as Lucy is already fairly clumsy, adding '_not paying attention to where you step' _to the mix doesn't help her predicament.

Lucy's left foot catches on something resting on the floor. With a small yelp she tumbles forward, crashing onto the floor.

"Lucy? Are you alright?" Alfendi asks swiftly walking over to her side and crouching down next to her.

"I'm fine, just took a spill. Nowt to fret over, anyhow," Lucy says feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment.

Alfendi glances over to see what Lucy had tripped over. Slowly he helps her to her feet and pulls her to the side. "May I borrow your phone?" He asks her.

Lucy passes her mobile over to Alfendi who presses the home button and illuminates the screen. He holds the makeshift flashlight out to spotlight the thing that tripped Lucy.

She gasps and buries her face into Al's chest, squeezing her eyes shut to block out the horrible image. Alfendi runs his fingers through her hair and rubs her shoulder to comfort her. "It's alright Lucy," he murmurs in her ear.

Lucy's voice comes out muffled as she says, "Alright? _All right?_ That woman is lying on the floor, dead. Is that _all right_? Is it _alright _that I tripped over her?"

Sighing he uses Lucy's phone to call the police. They arrive within ten minutes and shut down the ride with in five. As members of the force themselves they are allowed to stay and investigate.

Alfendi fearlessly accepts a pair of sterile white gloves. He begins to work immediately, looking for clues on the body and around the scene. Lucy accepts the gloves too but she avoids the body and ends up standing in the corner watching Alfendi work. She bites her lip as he mutters, "Interesting, very interesting," to himself.

Finally he pauses and motions for Lucy to join him. "Wot's the matter?" She asks after having slowly inched over.

In response Al holds up the knife that had been buried in the young women's back. It was smeared in sticky blood. Lucy winces involuntarily as he asks, "Could you locate a sheet of paper for me?"

She makes short work of tracking down an officer who had a pad of paper on him and returns to Alfendi with the sheet. "Why do you need it?" She asks, puzzled.

Al doesn't respond. Instead he runs his fingers along the blade effectively getting blood all over them. He rubs the blood off on the hilt of the knife and presses it against the sheet of paper for a few seconds before pulling away.

Lucy looks over his shoulder and gives a sharp intake of breath, "There's a message." She says. She wrestles with two emotions; being amazed and being repulsed.

"Yes, it's a very worrisome message indeed," He says gesturing for an officer to come over. "Could you have this knife sent down to the forensics tem at the Scotland Yard?"

When the officer leaves with the knife Al hands Lucy the sheet of paper to read. "'Trick-or-Treat rule 1: Never go to a house that's lights aren't on'," Lucy reads. She frowns, "Wot's that supposed to mean?"

"I believe it means the killer plans on claiming another life."


End file.
